Disclaimer: the Hunger Games trilogy belongs to Suzanne Collins
Chap 29
Katniss, you have to run. Katniss, you have to help Jackson bandage her wounds. Katniss, you have to put something on your own injury. Katniss, count your arrow.
One, two, three…
Katniss. A hand touches my arm gently.
I look up from my arrows. Gale's face floats before my eyes. I slowly use my hands to keep it steady. Gale lets me do this without complain.
"Yes?" Finally I can answer him.
"Katniss, something's wrong with her." Gale whispers.
I realize all the orders before coming from Gale. He has pushed me ahead when my mind went blank from tired of sadness, desperate and anger. I look around to catch a picture of where I am. It's already dark. We've arrived at another house. Slump in a dark corner is Finnick, I'm sure that he's weeping for Johanna, just like he once wept for Mags on the beach. Flat on her back, panting heavily is Jackson. I bandaged her, gave her painkiller I found in the first aid kit in the kitchen, but her leg was broken and I couldn't do anything. Gale taps my shoulder lightly and points out for me the last one. A trembling figure next to the sofa. Rhosy. I nod with him.
"Be careful. We don't know what's she gonna do." He says then walks back to the window, guarding for us.
I crawl to Rhosy. She did help the team and she did save me from suffocating under the mutt. However it's not easily for me to shake off her crazy laugh when she yelled at me she would remember how I kicked her. Okay, that's my fault.
"Rhosy?" I call.
She looks up. Her eyes reflect the dim light from the window, remind me of Buttercup's. They're nervous and not steady on my face. She bites her lips. Now I remember.
"When is the last time you took your pills?" I grab her shoulder.
"I don't know…I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She mumbles softly.
"Rhosy, calm down. You're not a drug tester any more. You don't have to sorry." I mutter quickly and keep her head for her locking her eyes with me. "Are you with me? Rhosy?"
"Kat…Katniss. Damn you… You arrogant…You never believe me…" Her voice breaks. She's actually crying. "I will make you… remember me."
I gulp. You just came back from the edge of breaking down, you have to stay here. I remind myself.
"Okay, I remember you. Just calm down." I try to sooth her. "Remember, remember, we're here to kill Snow. I need you to calm down."
"You don't need me… All of you… leave me alone." She sobs.
"What's wrong with her?" Finnick asks right beside me, startle me a little. His voice's hoarse. He clears his throat.
"She's out of her medicine." I answer.
"What kind of medicine?" He asks.
"I don't know. She needs them to calm down."
"Maybe sleeping pill might work." After a moment, Finnick says thoughtfully. "Or at least they will make her sleep."
"Good idea. I will go find them." I quickly run to the kitchen, scratch the pile of medicine under the flashlight. There are none. Maybe they keep them in the bedroom. I go up stair. Only one room has its door open. I peer in it first and see a round bed. The wall is painted with light purple while the bed in pink. Ugh, the taste of Capitol. I open the nightstand. There's milk powder, tissue, a lot of things I can't name and I sigh, a small bottle with the label written sleep syrup. I lift it up. The bottle is made in berry shape and in the lid carved a… mockingjay. I groan. A product follows my first Game. That's when I catch the sight of a shadow behind me. Instinctively I duck my head to one side. A slender but hard thing smashes my wounded shoulder.
"Argh!" I give out a short scream while quickly dodge around and grab the attacker, putting one of my hands to its mouth.
"Katniss!" Gale calls from down stair and I hear footsteps.
I struggle with the attacker. My arms are weaker than before because of the wound but the attacker doesn't seem like a strong one, either. A woman. I notice her soft and … wet, why, breast under my arm. Surprisingly, I feel a warm liquid falling on my bare feet. I push her down to the bed, still keeping my hand over her mouth.
"Katniss!" Gale rushes in, flashlight on one hand supporting the other with gun.
"Don't shoot, Gale, don't shoot!" I don't know why I said that. In another case I would be the one who shot her right when she attacked me. I have a mini gun on my belt and I didn't even pull it out. Maybe, just maybe it's because of what Boggs wanted me to do to pay him back.
"You're alright?" Gale glances at the woman then ask me without lower his gun.
"I'm alright." Now, under his flashlight I can see the weapon she used. A coat hanger. And she's dressing in her nightgown. Certainly she recognizes me. Her eyes are filled up with fright. No makeup, no wigs, she doesn't look like a normal Capitol woman.
"Katniss, we can't risk let her live." Gale says and steps closer.
The lower part of her nightgown and her legs are wet. Oh no, she doesn't look like one but she is…
"No, we can't kill her. She's pregnant and… about to give birth… right now." I snap at him out of frightening.
"What?" Gale asks in disbelief. Why now? Don't we have enough things to take care of?
"Shhh, we don't want to hurt you." I whisper to the woman. "Please don't scream. If you promise you won't scream, I will take off my hand. Okay?"
She nods, tears running down her temple. I slowly lift my hand on her mouth.
"Why you didn't evacuate?" I ask.
"My husband… he went to the city center to get an ambulance for me…" She whimpers.
"What? Her husband. Katniss, if you don't want to kill her, it's okay but we have to get out of here. Who know when her husband will come back." Gale says. I raise my hand to stop him.
"You need doctors? You never did it yourself?" I stammer.
"No one does… They say it's not good… it will make your waist look fat…"
I roll my eye. Stupid Capitol fashion.
"Okay, wait here for a moment. You have to stay still. Your water has broken so if you move around… I don't know what can happen to you and your child." I say. Honestly I don't know but she takes it as a threatening. Whatever. I pull Gale to the hallway.
"We can't leave her here." I say.
"Katniss, are you out of your mind? Jackson can't walk anymore, that girl is going crazy down there and the husband's coming back and you said we have to take care of her. What's for?" Gale grumbles. Right, his hatred toward the Capitol is much deeper than mine. It includes all the Capitol people, who watch children killing other for entertaining. I think of them as a herd of idiot but innocence pets, like my prep teams.
"Because we're not like them. I can kill a Peacekeeper who attacks me but not this harmless woman and her unborn child. If we leave her here, they might die." I argue. We lock eyes. Only the hurtful cry of the woman distracts us. Gale bites his lip and gives up.
"Fine. But… can you deliver?" He sighs.
Well, that's a different problem. I put my hand on his shoulder, deciding to joke a little while inside I really want to run away.
"May the odds be ever in my favor."
